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Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Indy® Grand Prix of Sonoma

San Rafael, California

Ahoy race fans! This is a little blog tease.

My little kingdom in Glen Ellen, California is about 10 miles to the north of Infineon Raceway. When I commute from Christa to my house 2 or 3 times per week I pass right by the race track. Plus one of my yoga teachers is also a newly minted professional motorcycle rider and is the founder of Pranaforce Racing. He races at Infineon and I like to go watch and support him. You can see my post on the last trip to Infineon by clicking here.

Jeff and I grew up together in Pennsylvania, but lost touch for a number of years. Then I reunited with him again at my 20 year High School reunion, only to lose track of him again. But, I tracked him down again. I shall not lose track of him again! He is now the Chief Engineer for AJ Foyt Racing team. He is an Indy car guy, low key, mellow and calm by nature. I recon he is superior in his high pressure job. Always analytical. We were a great team. Me a spaz and Jeff at the opposite end of the spectrum.

AJ &amp;amp; Sammy Hagar. The Race Team and Sammy have a relationship

Jeff was always a motor head and pretty smart to boot. He had a 1977 Camero Z-28 identical to the one pictured below. One day in his parents garage he started to re-build a GM Small Block 350 while I just looked on. I held some wrenches here and there with no desire to learn about said engine. I was more interested in chasing girls and doing burn-outs. Now Jeff simply did all of this mechanical work from the manual by trial and error. Once that Chevy Orange engine was dropped in, she was a rocket. That dude "Mayhem" from the insurance commercials had nothing on us! We were a menace to society, and labeled as trouble makers. I suppose we were, but we seemed to have turned out OK. Both of us marveled that we did not die in that vehicle. I remember getting pulled over by "Officer No Slack Ricklack"on more than one occasion.

Jeff is going to be racing this weekend at Infineon and yours truly has a pit pass. That's right baby, I'm going to be in Pitts with Jeff and my Canon G11 blazing away. So excited to see Jeff and an Indy Car race up front and personal. Here are a couple of pics from the race team website.